Guided Math: The Overview [Part 1 of 3]

Why Do I Need to Learn How to Implement Guided Math?

I have students that range in ability levels from 2-3 grade levels below average to 2-3 grade levels above. Do you see a range of ability levels in your classroom too? If so, how can we justify teaching the same whole group math lesson to all of our students? The below average kiddos will be lost and the above average kiddos will be bored. The only students you are reaching will be your average kiddos. That’s maybe 30% of your class… if you’re lucky. With those numbers, how can we justify that whole group math instruction is best practice? In this blog series, we will dive into how to implement guided math in your elementary classroom.

Important to Note:

• You can teach to the ability of your students.
• You only explicitly teach 4-6 kids at a time which means you can give students the attention they need.
• Your groups can be flexible (students can move groups) depending on the content and pre-assessment results.
• You can target your below average group with interventions designed for their needs.
• You can target your above average group with challenging opportunities to enrich their learning.

Back to School Picture Books

Let's talk picture books! I absolutely love picture book read-alouds. Sometimes I use them to introduce a lesson in a content area. Sometimes I read one and we dig deep into the context. Often we read picture books just.for.fun!

Today, I'm sharing some of my favorite picture books for back to school! Take a look at some of my favorites below. They are affiliate links that will take you right to Amazon so you can purchase. You can also find them all in one place on my Amazon Affiliate Storefront {HERE}.

Tools for Guided Reading

How I Use Tools for Guided Reading Engagement:

Let's talk engagement! With technology becoming so prevalent in our students' lives, I think we can all agree that we often struggle to grab our students' interest when it comes to reading. Let's face it, our students want instant gratification and sometimes reading takes patience. Sometimes it takes a few pages, or even a few chapters, to really grab my interest... same for our students! From guided reading instruction to reading for pleasure, I think it's super important to instill a love of reading in our young readers so any way that I can make reading more FUN will *hopefully* lay the foundation for a LOVE of reading if they can just learn to give it a chance. I have gathered some fun tools for guided reading that I keep at our small group reading table to make our guided reading time more fun for the kiddos.

Classroom Reveal 2017-2018

Hello everybody! I wanted to welcome you into a virtual tour of my 2017-2018 classroom. I have included LOTS of pictures and links when possible. Welcome to Room 33.

Inexpensive Math Centers

Are you tired of spending time and money prepping math centers? If so, then THIS is the resource for YOU! All you need for these centers are dice, playing cards, OR spinners - YOU CHOOSE! No more printing, laminating, and cutting for hours! This is a complete set of math centers for the ENTIRE YEAR with very little prep work. You can find "2nd Grade Math Centers for the Entire Year - 36 Centers" in my TPT Store HERE.

Classroom Library Organization

I'm going to take you on a picture walk back in time to let you check out my various classroom library systems and then I will reveal what my plan is for this school year.

First, for beauty's sake, let's take a look at my most recent classroom library. It was my library last year and the year before. See it below. One thing you will notice is that it is NOT labeled and/or organized in any certain way {GASP!}. I know, I know. Let me explain. For the past two years I have only taught MATH, so while my students visited our classroom library on occasion, they were primarily using their reading teacher's classroom library, which was organized and labeled nicely. For this reason, I chose to *not stress* over labeling and organizing - crazy right?! Hey, you pick your battles and organizing all those books was not one of them at the time. :)

Top 5 Teacher Must Haves: #5

Each day this week, I have been sharing one of my top 5 teacher must-have items. These are items that make my teacher life easier, my classroom more organized, and my time more efficient. In case you missed the previous posts, you will want to catch up on items #1-4 {HERE}, {HERE}, {HERE}, and {HERE}.

 #5 Cheap & Easy Center Materials

{Affiliate Links Below}

Math centers can become super expensive really quickly, especially if you switch them out often. This is why it's important to use some staple items that you may already own or that you can get for a fairly reasonable price that will work for the majority of your math centers. These items are also very durable and will hold up well over time. Most of them allow for EASY differentiation as well - so important!